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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

019 823 344 4 



KINDERGARTEN 



PAPERS 



ANOELINK BROOKS, 

Prol'eBsor of Kindergarten Methods, Teachers' Oellege, 
New York City. 







Milton Bradley Co., 
springfield, mass. 



Lbinf 
.6f 



Coi'VKUJHTKl), 1894, 

By MILTON BRADLEY CO. 

Sl'KINdKIKLl), MASS. 



CONTENTS. 



I. The Philosophy of the Kindergarten . 
II. The Possibilities of the Kindergarten . 

III. The Kindergarten as an Institution for Moral 

Training ....... 

IV. Play and Work in Education .... 
V. The Connection Between the Primary School anci 

the Kindergarten ..... 

VI. Frwbel's Interpretation of Nature 
VII. The Religious Nurture of Earlv Childhood 



Pa<»:. 
5 

12 



31 



43 



The Philosophy of the Kmdergarten.* 



Frcebel, the founder of the Kiudergarten, announced as the 
basis of his system an educational law which he called the law 
of unity. The first chapter of his ''Education of Man," entitled 
"Groundwork of the Whole," opens with these words: "In 
all things there lives and reigns an eternal law. . . . This all- 
controlling law is necessarily based on an all-pervading, ener- 
getic, living, self-conscious, and hence eternal Unitj'. . . . This 
Unity is God. All things have come from the Divine Unity, 
from God, and have their origin in the Divine Unity, in God 
alone. God is the sole Source of all things. In all things 
there lives and reigns the Divine Unity, God." 

Froebel declared that it was the application of this eternal 
law, here traced to its Source, which gave him the right to call 
his method a system. He spoke of it under different terms, as 
the law of the connection of opposites, the law of development, 
the law of balance, the law of contrasts and their connections, 
as well as the law of unity, and declared that the whole mean- 
ing of his educational scheme rested upon this law alone. Other 
great minds have recognized the operation of the same law, 
and it is toward the consideration of the underlying unity of all 
things that all modern thought tends, whether in the realm of 
religion, of science, or of philosophy.. It is seen that all things 
are from God, that all things have relation to man, and that 
therefore all must have relation to one another. Emerson gives 
expression to the satisfaction which the human mind experi- 
ences in the contemplation of this truth, when he says: "The 

♦Reprinted by permission from The Christian Union, September 24, 1S92. 



6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 

day of days, tlie great day of the feast of life, is tliat in which 
the iuward eye opens to the uuity of things." 

An extended reference to the law of unity in its universal ai> 
plication is not pertinent to the purpose of this paper, but it is 
hoped that a correct apprehension of the idea involved in the 
term in its application to education may be gained by a brief conr 
sideratiou of the underlying principles of Froebel's philosophy. 

The term education, as P^ra?bel uses it, contains the central 
idea of his system, for, recognizing "the identity of the cos- 
mic laws with the laws of our mind," and seeing that the opera- 
tions of nature are always in orderly evolutions, he defines edu- 
cation to be a process of development. This thought is con- 
tained in the word Kindergarten (child-garden) , for, as the wise 
gardener seeks to give each plant the best conditions for unfold- 
ing the divine thought which it contains, so the Kindergarten 
demands for each human being, created for freedom in the im- 
age of God, the opportunity to develop his inborn possibilities, 
spontaneously and freely, in accordance with the eternal law. 
The limiting, repressing, dwarfing methods of mere instruction, 
which prescribe for all alike, and which regard the human mind 
as merely a receptacle to be filled, have no place in the new 
education. Admitting that at present the schools are far from 
making vital, in actual practice, the developing method, it is 
encouraging and inspiring to note that the tendency of the most 
advanced educational thought is in this direction. 

"The object of education," says Froebel, "is the realization 
of a faithful, pure, inviolate, and hence, holy life." Enlarging 
upon this idea, he says: "Education should lead and guide man 
to a clearness concerning himself and in himself, to peace with 
nature and to unity with God ; hence it should lift him to a 
knowledge of himself and of mankind, to a knowledge of God 
and of nature, and to the pure and holy life to which such 
knowledge leads." How far present educational methods are 
from attaining the results required by this standard, our crimi- 
nal records, our juvenile asylums, our State prisons, and the 
general disorders of society testify. Such results can be reached 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 7 

ouly through that uuificatiou of life, everywhere spoken of iu 
Froebel's writings, which involves all man's relationships — to 
God, to nature and to humanity — and which necessitates the 
education of the whole human being — his head, his heart, and 
his hand — in uninterrupted continuity of development from the 
earliest infancy. 

No language can be too strong to express the emphasis which 
Froebel places upon the need of religious education. In one 
place he says: "All education which is not founded upon the 
Christian religion is one-sided, defective, and fruitless;" again, 
he says: "The object and end of all education is the union of 
the individual soul with God." This idea is pervasive of all 
his writings ; it is the central thought of the whole. 

Recognizing the interdependence of different planes of spirit- 
ual activity, Froebel sees social education to be essential to true 
religious culture. In fact, he traces the religious and the social 
instinct to the same source, and finds in the child's love of 
companionship — in his desire to find some being in loving re- 
sponse to himself — the germ of all religious feeling. A guid- 
ing thought iu Froebel's philosophy is the idea of the organic 
relation of the individual to the race. He says: "In the de- 
velopment of the individual man the history of the spiritual de- 
velopment of the race is repeated, and the race iu its totality 
may be viewed as one human being, in whom there will be 
found the necessary steps in the development of individual 
man." That humanity is a living organism, whose members 
are vitally related to each other, is acknowledged in common 
language iu such expressions as "the body of the people," "the 
popular voice," "common consent;" and the analogy between 
the development of the race and that of the individual is recog- 
nized in such terms as "the infancy of the race," "this age of 
the world," "the development of humanity." That the human 
being needs practical social education is shown by the discords 
which result from violations of the laws governing human so- 
ciety. The child's first social life, which Froebel would have 
cherished and fostered most tenderly, is that of the family; 



8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 

but at an early age there comes the oecessity for a wider eoni- 
paiiiouship thau the home circle affords, and the Kindergarten, 
which is pre-eminently a place of social education, offers itself 
to meet the needs of this important stage of development. 
Edward Everett Hale says : "The great idea of the present cen- 
tury is the togetherness of the human race." 

Considering man in his relation to nature, the first and most 
obvious thought is of his body, upon the healthy condition of 
which right living on the higher planes of thought and affection 
so largely depends ; but a deeper thought than this underlies 
the expressions "a knowledge of nature," "peace with nature," 
which Era^bel includes in his statement of the object of educa- 
tion, quoted above. In nature he sees the "embodied thoughts 
of God," and it is to nature as a book of C4od that he would 
lead the child. The interpretation of the book of nature he 
finds in its symbolisms of spiritual truth.' His words are, "All 
natural phenomena are signs of spiritual truth to which they 
give expression: thus they may be called symbols." In this 
correspondence between spiritual truth and its natural symbol, 
Froebel sees a grand illustration of the law of unity, and most 
earnestly he urges upon educators the obligation to apply it. 
He says: "It is quite a different thing whether we look upon 
concrete things and facts as merely material things and facts, 
serving this or that outward purpose, or contemplate them as 
the outward forms of spiritual contents, the intermedia of higher 
truths and higher knowledge. In this sense the material world 
is a symbol of the spiritual world, and it is in this sense that 
education needs to use it, especially in leading the child to the 
ultimate cause of all things — God." In the technical Kindergar 
ten gifts and occupations Froebel presents what may be called a 
primer of the book of nature. These gifts and occupations he 
liases upon three typical forms — the sphere, the cube, and the 
cylinder— in which he sees the whole material universe epitomized 
and symbolized. These three forms taken together embody the 
law of unity, and in their use in the true Kindergarten that law 
is always observed, in sequences of thought and of work. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 9 

Hitherto school education has been one-sided, confining itself 
chiefly to the intellect, and making little provision for the cul- 
tivation of the heart or the training of the hand. In fact, 
although claiming to give attention to good morals, the schools 
in their systems of marks and distinctions, have had a powerful 
influence in exactly the opposite direction, fostering untruth- 
fulness, self-seeking, jealousy, dishonesty in its worst forms, 
and tending to defeat even the one end chiefly sought ; for the 
painstaking but slow child, seeing the honors of the school 
bestowed upon his more gifted but possibly less faithful com- 
panion, becomes discouraged and indifferent, while the prize 
pupil, who has worked, not in joy and freedom, from the love 
of knowledge, but, as he unblushingly confesses, for marks, is 
thereby dwarfed and crippled intellectually as well as morally. 
Against the self-seeking system of the schools the Kindergar- 
ten protests in the most practical manner, for all its methods 
are adapted to develop feelings of kindness, of helpfulness, of 
sympathy with, and of respect for, others. No one is encour- 
aged to do better than another, but each is stimulated to do his 
best. Right feeling is necessary for true thinking ; it is only 
when the heart is joyous that the intellect does its best work. 
The child depressed by discouragement, burdened with fear, 
wounded by injustice, or hungry for love, does not thrive either 
intellectually or morally, and the first aim of the Kindergarten 
- is to see that he is happy. 

But right feelings, without means of expression, are mere sen- 
timents ; they must take definite and tangible shape before they 
■ can be of any value, either to the subject of them or to another; 
I and the crowning excellence of Fro?bers system — that which 
] gives it practical value — is found in its industries and activi- 
; ties, its manual work and representative play, through which, 
. by actual doing, the loving thought is expressed. One applica- 
I tion of the law of unity is seen in the fact that the industries of 
the Kindergarten are the industries of the race in miniature — 
working in clay, building, weaving, sewing, etc. — all leading 
out into the life of the world. But it is not from consideration 



10 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 

of theiv use iu the activities of practical life, importaut as these 
may be, that Froebel lays such emphasis upon the industries of 
the child. He sees that man in his best development is neces- 
sarily a creative being, and he urges a higher application of the 
law of unity in the reasons which he gives for the encourage- 
ment of creative activity. He says: "The Spirit of God hov- 
ered above the shapeless chaos and moved it : then began rocks 
and plants, animals and men, to assume definite shape, to exist 
and live. God created man in His own image, in the image of 
God created He him ; therefore man should create and work 
like God ; his spirit, the mind of man, should hover over and 
move the formless chaos of life in order that definite forms of 
life may emerge. Herein lie the deep meaning and importance 
as well as the main object of work and industry ; working is in 
a certain sense creating." 

It is only through doing that the human being can be de- 
veloped — can realize his own possibilities — can be himself ; and 
he must see himself objectively in some product of his own ac- 
tivity before he can know himself. With what feelings of sat- 
isfaction and self-respect, with what a sense of his own dignity 
and importance, the little child of the Kindergarten exclaims, 
as he holds up some finished piece of work, "See what I have 
made ! See what I did myself !" 

The seed sown by Froebel more than sixty years ago is bear- 
ing fruit. Character-building as the end of education, and the 
training of the hand as an indispensable means to that end, are 
two thoughts now prominently before our leading educators. 

In regard to the training of the baud, the question of the 
schools now is, not, "Shall we encourage it?" but "what indus- 
tries can be introduced, and in what way?" 

The most difficult part of the problem — that of providing 
work suitable for the youngest children — was solved by Froebel 
himself. It is left for his followers to devise occupations 
adapted to the schools and suited to the needs of our times. 

A recognition of the importance of infancy for educational 
purposes is one of the peculiar features of Froebel's system. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 11 

"Life," he says, "is one continuous whole, and all the stages 
of development are but links in the great chain of existence ; 
and since nothing is stronger than its weakest part, it is essen- 
tial that the first link, babyhood, be made firm enough to bear 
the strain of future life." Practical as he always is, Froebel 
shows in "The Mother Play and Nursery Songs" — a book 
worthy of the most careful study by all mothers — how this first 
link in the chain of life may be strengthened. Two thoughts, 
each involving the idea of unit}', furnish the key to this book ; 
they are, the relation of the germ stage of life to all other 
stages, and the symbolism of material things. 

It is through the activity of play — the only activity in which 
the child is free and joyous — that the ends sought in the Kin- 
dergarten are attained, and the school finds work made easy 
when it is done in the play spirit. 

In his motto, "Come let us live with our children," Frcebel 
urges the fostering of a sympathetic union between parent and 
child. 

The importance and the sacredness of such relationship he 
expresses in these words : — 

"For thyself in all thy works take care 

That every act the highest meaning bear ; 

Would'st thou unite the child for aye with thee, 

Then let him with the Highest One thy union see. 

Believe that by the good that's in thy mind 

Thy child to good will early be inclined ; 

By every noble thought with which thy heart is fired 

The child's young soul will surely be inspired ; 

And can'st thou any better gift bestow 

Than union with the Eternal One to know?" 



II. 

The Possibilities of the Kinderofarten * 



How to save the children, and how to reach the homes of 
"the other half," j^re the two questions most prominent before 
the philanthropists of the present time. A careful considera- 
tion of the means at hand for the accomplishment of these two 
inclusive purposes discloses the fact that there is no other avail- 
able agency that in the least compares with the Kindergarten. 
Apart from its philanthropic aspects, it is also recognized as an 
educational institution, and the idea of introducing it into our 
public school systems has for some time been gaining ground. 

It is true that the Kindergarten has possibilities which ally it 
to the school, and it is claimed by some that when public Kin- 
dergartens shall have been established there will be no further 
need of those whose object is purely philanthropic. However, a 
consideration of the methods employed in the attempt to adapt 
the system to the schools leads to the conclusion that they fail 
fully to appreciate the requirements of the true Kindergarten, 
and that, under their administration, society will not realize its 
fullest possibilities. 

One reason for this conclusion is that the school regards the 
Kindergarten as a mere preliminary to the established course of 
school work, whereas a view of the present state of society 
must convince the careful observer that what is needed is not 
merely more school, but something different fi'om the school. 

In proportion to the population, the number of criminals in 
this country is now greater than it was twenty-five years ago, 
and furthermore, statistics show that the average age of crimi- 
nals is decreasing, each succeeding year adding a list younger 

*Open letter in "The Century," January 1893. By permission of the Century Company. 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 13 

than any of the preceding years. The cause of this alarming 
state of affairs may, to a great extent, be traced to the neglect 
of childhood. 

It must be conceded that the public schools fail in not making 
character-building their primal duty, as, theoretically, the chief 
reason for their existence is to make good citizens. Their failure 
to do this necessitates, in many instances, the establishment of 
juvenile tisylumsand reformatory prisons, the object of which is 
to reclaim a dangerous class, who, had they been properly trained 
in early childhood, would have required no reclaiming. 

An important failure of the schools in their adoption of the 
Kindergarten is in not utilizing the two j^ears between three 
and five ; for if the Kindergarten were to be merely preliminary 
to the school, with its present standard of purely intellectual 
training, it would be a mistake to overlook these years in which 
the child develops intellectually more than in any subsequent 
two years of his life, and to which the Kindei'garten is perfectly 
adapted. Before the development of the Kindergarten there 
was no systematic course of intellectual training available for 
children below five years of age, the infant schools of two gener- 
ations ago, with their forcing processes, having been abandoned 
as entirely impracticable. Important as these years are for in- 
tellectual training, the Kindergarten values them especially as a 
time for moral and spiritual nurture^ an opportunity for doing 
both preventive and upbuilding work. 

Even should the public schools take the child at three years 
of age, these social possibilities of the Kindergarten, which are 
important factors in philanthropic woi'k, would not be realized, 
for the public school-teacher is not required to know, and sel- 
dom does know, anything of the home life of her pupils. In- 
deed, her long hours and many pupils render this impossible. 
In all philanthropic Kindergartens, however, visiting in the 
homes of the children is an essential part of the work, and the 
Kindergarten is frequently a welcome visitor where no city 
missionary would be admitted, often supplying what is most 
needed, namely, a friend. 



14 THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 

The true Kindergarten regards not merely the intellect, but 
aims to cultivate the heart and to train the hand. It has a pur- 
pose entirely distinct from that which is practically recognized 
in the schools. It seeks to make children joyous, pure, trust- 
ful, docile, reverent and unselfish, while it is conceded that the 
effect of school influences is often the very opposite. 

Many of the faults of the school are traceable to the fact 
that so many pupils are assigned to one teacher that she cannot 
give them attention individually, and the same conditions are 
found in most of the public Kindergartens thus far established. 
The true Kindergarten idea is to develop the highest possibili- 
ties of each individual child, and at the same time so to culti- 
vate the social feeling that the individual will be subordinate to 
the good of the community. To promote these ends, the Kin- 
dergarten must be in sympathetic relations Avith each of the 
children, and, therefore, the number must not be too great. 



III. 

The Kindergarten as an Institution for 
Moral Training* 



The Kindergarten as an institution for moral training is tlie 
subject I have been asked to present. Morality may be defined 
as the observance of the duties involved in the social relations 
of men. The vital importance of giving more attention to this 
subject than it has heretofore received is being more and more 
appreciated by both educators and students of social science. 

Society is a unit, and the absurdity of neglecting moral train- 
ing in the schools, thus necessitating remedial measures later 
on, is obvious. 

The tax-payer who supports the schools must also pay for 
the maintenance of good social order, and he has a right to 
complain if through any neglect of the schools social order 
does not prevail. 

The public schools were first established in this country, 
and have since been maintained, for the purpose of making 
good citizens, for it is universally conceded that "ignorance is 
the parent of vice." However well they may have fulfilled their 
mission in the past, new complications have arisen which re- 
quire the adoption of new measures. In all departments of in- 
dusti'y and social life, customs that prevailed forty years ago 
are now practically obsolete, and it must be admitted that 
many of the changes which have resulted have produced condi- 
tions not favorable to the formation of good social habits. The 
crowding together in large cities of so many families in tene- 

*Paper read at Columbia Colleg^e, New York, Oct. 22nd, 1892, before the Conference 
of Educational Workers and published in the Kindergarten Magazine, February I893. 



16 MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 

ment houses deprives children of the comforts enjoyed by a 
well-ordered family, prevents the forming of any standard of 
what true home-life may be, and induces a life of idleness. 
The education in practical morality, which the country boy re- 
ceives from the varied occupations of the farm and the kindly 
and helpful associations of neighborhood-life, is entirely want- 
ing to the boy in the city, who having, when out of school, no 
proper field for his activities, inevitably falls into mischief. 
The criminal records and the statistics of our reformatory insti- 
tutions show that from year to year there is an alarming in- 
crease of juvenile criminals, and the establishment, within a 
few years, of the reformatory prison at Elmira, in this state, 
was deemed essential because of the existence of this increas- 
ing and dangerous class. 

Our educational problem is further complicated by the fact 
that a large part of the tenement population of our great cities 
is composed of recent inimigi-ants who are henceforth to be citi- 
zens of this country, but who have brought hither the igno- 
rance and the vices of the lowest classes of the Old World. 
New York city, in which multitudes of this foreign population 
are accumulated, is in danger of being overwhelmed by this 
constantly increasing mass, ignorant of our language and of 
the principles which underlie our national life. These are the 
classes which must be transformed into good citizens. 

In view of this alarming condition of things we turn with 
pleasure to the Kindergarten as a possible means of solving 
our difficulties. 

It would, however, be too much to claim that the Kindergar- 
ten would accomplish so great a result should the schools re- 
main as they are ; but it is claimed that the Kindergarten is the 
foundation of a true education and that it is based upon prin- 
ciples which, if established and fully applied in the schools, 
would accomplish the needed educational reformation. 

It is my purpose to show that the Kindergarten is an institu- 
tion pre-eminently promotive of both social and moral education, 
and that, therefore, it is adapted to the exigencies of the times. 



MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 17 

As no other educatioual iustitution has ever done, it provides 
for the most impressionable period of the child's existence. The 
schools do not ordinarily accept the child below five years of 
age, and frequently not below six, but all acquainted with child- 
life know that his practical education is well advanced before 
this age, and that he has already received the bent which de- 
termines not only what his school-life will be, but frequently 
also what his whole future character will be. 

A child five years of age may have been so well started in life 
that when he enters the school he may have a receptive mind, a 
docile, reverent, and trustful spirit, habits of truthfulness and 
obedience, refined tastes, gentle manners, a cheerful disposition, 
and a will so trained to regard the rights of others that he can 
easily adapt himself to the social condition of the miniature com- 
munity into which he has been introduced ; or he may have quali- 
ties the reverse of these ; but with his previous education the 
school has had nothing to do, and must take him as it finds him. 

Now that we are becoming familiar with the Kindergarten 
and its possibilities, we are beginning to realize what an enor- 
mous loss of opportunity there has been in neglecting the years 
between three and five, to which the Kindergarten is perfectly 
adapted. In introducing the Kindergarten, as it is proposed, 
into the public schools in this city, it will be impossible, with 
out a change in the laws, to admit pupils under five years of age. 
It is true that at present, with our crowded school-buildings, it 
would be practically impossible to provide suitable accommoda- 
tions for all the children between three and five years of age, 
of whom it is estimated there are at least seventy thousand in 
the tenement houses alone. 

Visionary as may appear the scheme of thus extending the 
school age, there are in the way no dififlculties which will not be 
surmounted when the public becomes fully aroused, in their con- 
sideration of the enormous interests at stake, and are made 
thoroughly conversant with the preventive and upbuilding edu- 
cational possibilities of the Kindergarten, when presented under 
the best conditions. 



18 MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 

In the social development of this country this is distinctly a 
time of emergency, to meet which new and heretofore unused 
measures must be resorted to. A long step will have been 
taken toward that unification of society which Froebel saw would 
be the inevitable result of the application of his theories, when 
all classes of society shall unite in a common enthusiasm for 
childhood. 

Two features of the Kiudei-garten particularly adapted as 
means of promoting the moral training we are considering are 
(1) its manual training and (2) the joy of the play spirit in 
which the work is done ; play necessarily implying playmates, 
and therefore involving direct social education. 

Much has recently been said and written on the moral and 
intellectual value of manual training, and it is chiefly on these 
grounds that it has been accepted in the schools. 

The Kindergarten w^as the pioneer in the great manual-training 
movement, which during the last decade has extended through- 
out the country, and which marks an epoch in the development 
of our educational ideas. More than sixty years ago Froebel, 
in "The Education of Man," laid down the principle that no 
instruction is of value which is purely theoretical. He declared 
that education should be the means of disclosing to each indi- 
vidual his own possibilities ; that no one can know himself, and 
hence suitably respect and esteem himself, until he has seen 
himself objectively in some product of his own activity. He 
therefore strongly emphasized the necessity of doing. Froebel 
never stops with mere theory, l^nlike the great writers on edu- 
cation who preceded him, he reduces all his theories to prac- 
tice, going into the minutest details in the preparation of ma- 
terial for the use of infant hands, and prescribing particular 
directions for the conduct of the organized games of the Kin- 
dergarten. He has probably gone more deeply than any other 
writer into the psychology of the subject of manual training. 
In the notes of one of the songs of the "Mother Play" book, 
he says that counting, which is necessarily involved in all exact 
manual work, is a moral act; and in the "Education of Man," 



MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 19 

he says that mathematics, which he would always give to the 
child in concrete form in connection with some work of his 
hands, are allied to religion. 

In the simplest and most elementary occupations of the Kin- 
dergarten there are fostered habits of accuracy, attention, care- 
fulness, patience, perseverance, and method, — habits which can- 
not fail to have a powerful influence in developing the moral 
virtues of truthfulness, conscientiousness, industry, thrift, and 
self-reliance. The want of these virtues is painfully apparent 
in that large class of our fellow-beings who necessitate the ex- 
istence of our boards of charities and corrections. It is a sig- 
nificant fact that those who need charity and those who require 
correction are, in statistical tables, usually classed together. 

An investigation into the causes which have led these large 
classes to drop from the ranks of good citizenship discloses the 
fact that in a large majority of cases both the pauper and the 
criminal have untrained hands and undisciplined minds of which 
their enfeebled moral condition is an inevitable result. The 
superintendent of the reformatory prison at Elmira says that of 
the young criminals entering there, very few have any special 
aptitude for any useful work ; and further than this, the care- 
fully kept statistics of the institution show that nearly all are 
the children of thriftless parents unskilled in the arts and in- 
dustries of life. Mr. Dugdale, an authority on the subject, in 
his book upon "Crime and Pauperism," says that if the child- 
ren of vice and crime, born with the lowest tendencies, could 
from their earliest childhood be trained in Froebel's methods, 
these tendencies might be to a great extent overcome. 

That the Kindergarten does produce moral results of the 
most positive kind is shown in an article by Miss Lewis, in The 
Califoryiia for January, 1892, in which she states that an inves- 
tigation of the record of the nine thousand children who have 
been trained in the Kindergartens of the Golden Gate Asso- 
ciation, shows that only one has ever been arrested for crime. 

When we consider that thes^nine thousand Kindergarten child- 
ren were all gathered from the slums of San Francisco, we are 



20 MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 

forced to admit that the Kiudergarteu is a great moral agency. 

Upou this subject I quote from a published address of Mr. 
Hailmaun. He says: "Good Kindergarten in all its work is 
pre-eminently religious and ethical. Work in the Kindergarten 
from beginning to end has reference to the religious promise in 
the growth of the child. 

"Again at every point of the work the teacher must act in 
full sympathy with the child, must place himself on the child's 
plane, and from this, labor toward the child's (the human) 
ideal. If the Kindergartner sees in the gifts and occupations 
ends instead of means of insti'uction ; if she makes weaving, 
building, or folding matters of instruction, and subordinates 
the child to these, — she has not the spirit of Frcebel. 

"It has been said that we must go down to the child. I 
would say. Go up to the child; lift yourself if you can, to the 
level of innocence, of singleness of purpose, of pure and simple 
enjoyment of all things ; follow the child ; be led by him ; care- 
fully and thoughtfully seek to know the direction in which he 
drifts, then help him in his upward tendencies, and guard him 
against all that looks downward. 

"Again, the Kindergarten is essentially ethical. All its work 
must build up character, — benevolence, justice, righteousness, in 
every sense of the word. For this purpose its surroundings are 
adjusted. 'Then,' say some of the critics, 'you do not propose 
that children shall know anything?' Know! We want them to 
know vastly more than they know now ; their knowledge shall 
not be merely verbal, but practical, entering the pupil's very life. 

"If the Kindergarten has any quarrel with the school — though 
I cannot see that it has — it is not that the school teaches too 
much, but that it fails to put into the learner's life the knowl- 
edge it does teach." 

What a revolution would be wrought in the homes and the 
lives of the children of the present generation in this city if 
from this time onward their natural activities were so carefully 
fostered and directed that all should delight in the work of 
their own hands ! 



MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 21 

Fro-bel's wisdom is nowhere more manifest than in the pro- 
vision he makes for having everything done in the play spirit. 
The child of the Kindergarten is usually on good terms with his 
companions, chiefly because he is on good terms with himself ; 
the delight of healthy activity and the joyousness of spon- 
taneous play creating an atmosphere in which selfishness and ill 
nature do not thrive. 

The objection is sometimes raised that in the Kindergarten 
the work is made too easy for the child ; that, indeed, he is not 
taught to work but only to play. The objectors overlook the 
fact that there are purpose and method in the pla^^ of the Kin- 
dergarten, and that, if the activities of young children are to 
be directed to educational ends it must be done through their 
play, since to them work, as such, is hopelessly irksome. They 
will willingly, gladly work if they can only play that they are 
working, as they do in the Kindergarten, 

As has been said "Labor performs the prescribed task, but 
play prescribes for itself." Visitors in the Kindergarten often 
express themselves as specially impressed by the evident hap- 
piness and positive joyousness manifested by the children. >^o 
better means of social training can be devised than that wliich 
is involved in organized play. Children gather in a circle, 
dropping their own personality for the sake of sharing in the 
larger personality of the little community of which they are a 
part. Thus the conceited and aggressive as well as the timid and 
shrinking are led to appreciate themselves at their true value. 

Not long since an intelligent visitor in a Kindergarten was 
moved to tears on observing the self control and evident sym- 
pathy of a large circle of children as they patiently waited for 
a somewhat dull child to choose the game. Surely here was a 
training in good morals which is not always evident in games 
played by children of a larger growth. It is to be hoped that 
there is educational value in play, for if there is not, what is to 
become of our universities ? 

The true Kindergartner plays, atudies to play ; and it will be 
a happy day for the schools when the glad, free, and joyous 



22 MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 

spirit of true play animates all, both teacher and pupils. It is 
impossible truly to play with the children and at the same time 
to be cross and unsympathetic. 

Closely allied to the joy of the play spirit is the delight which 
the children take in the beautiful — the central thought of the 
Kindergarten being to secure the happiness of the children, not 
as an end but as a means. 

The indolent, thriftless, joyless man is a dangerous member 
of society. Let him take positive delight in his own work and 
learn to respect and esteem himself as the producer of that 
which is good and beautiful, and he becomes a bringer of happi- 
ness to the community, for "virtue kindles at the touch of joy." 



IV. 

Play and Work in Education.' 



The New Education, of which the Kindergarten is the basis, 
claims to be a natural system of education. These words, "a 
natural system of education," are familiar to our ears, and to 
dwell upon their meaning on an occasion like this may at first 
appear almost a discourtesy to the audience ; yet, in consider- 
ing what to say upon the subject assigned me, namely: "Play 
and Work in Education," I have found myself questioning their 
true significance, and have concluded that in the principles and 
ideas involved in these words we have the whole of true educa- 
tional philosophy and of correct educational method. 

Whatever is natural, in the true and highest sense of the 
word, is according to divine order, — an order whose conception 
is in infinite love, and whose fulfillment is in accordance with 
infinite wisdom. 

To look for the divine order, whether in regard to things ma- 
terial or things spiritual, constitutes the work of the true scien- 
tist ; to discover that order and to live in accordance with it is 
both the chief duty and the highest pi-ivilege of man. 

Seeking for a natural philosophy of education, we have only 
to inquire. How has the great Teacher educated the human 
race? that is, in what has this education consisted? and by 
what means has it been accomplished? To this inquiry, from 
every page of human history, the answer comes that education 
is development, orderly and progressive ; and confirming this 
truth of history, science brings from her researches, whether 
into the greatest or the least things of the material universe, 

*Read at Kindergarten Congress, Chicago, July iS, 1S93. 



24 PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. 

the graud generalization tliat the Creator works always in or- 
derly evolutions. 

The word system means "a union of parts forming one entire 
whole;" the term, a system of education, implies connected and 
related stages of human development ; it involves the idea of 
the organic relation of each stage of growth to every stage 
which has preceded and to every stage which follows. 

Inquiring by what means human development has been ac- 
complished, we discover the universal law that all life ex- 
presses itself in activity, gaining through action a constantly 
increasing power of action. 

But in considering this subject other questions force them- 
selves upon us : What is man ? and why should he be edu- 
cated? What is his destiny? and what will be accomplished 
when his highest development shall have been reached? 

In answer to these comprehensive questions, revelation con- 
firms that which all analogies suggest, and which man in his 
most exalted moments feels to be true, that man is made in the 
image of God, and that his destiny is to become Godlike, that 
is, to become in finite degree what the eternal One is in infi- 
nite degree. 

From this standpoint we look down on human life in all its 
complexity and apparent want of continuity, and see a divine 
order prevailing in it; and holding fast to this central truth 
regarding man's destiny, we learn to see the experiences of life 
in their true relations and to estimate them at their true value. 

The activity of the divine Being is in the constant putting 
forth of creative power. The first announcement of the written 
Word is '-In the beginning God created," and from every page 
of that elder Scripture, the open book of nature, we learn that 
He is creating, eternally, and uninterruptedly. Man, therefore, 
made in the image of the Creator, must be a creative being. 
The divine Being creates, when through His infinite wisdom He 
gives external form and objectivity to the impulses of His infi- 
nite love ; man may be said to create when, availing himself of 
materials provided for him by the divine Creator, and making 



PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. 25 

use of diviue laws, be gives expression, through thought, to 
the promptings of his desires. 

In these words: "Man is a creative being," is contained, as 
in a germ, all that is involved in the new education. When 
and how does this creativeness begin to manifest itself? What 
are its later manifestations? How may it be fostered? To what 
ends should it be directed? and how may it be made to serve 
those ends ? These questions being answered, the problems of 
education will be solved. 

The first manifestation of human creativeness is seen in the 
unconscious play of earliest childhood ; and in the bestowment 
of the instinct of play, God has set upon every human being 
the seal of His divine Fatherhood. The child is responsive to 
the divine Life. At first unconscious of himself, he begins to 
exercise that free activity which in its ever fuller expression 
will make him more and more completely the ideal man. He 
plays innocently, joyously, spontaneously, — his play taking 
such form as his stage of development makes possible. 

To play, is the natural and appropriate business of the child. 
Suppose he neither plays nor loves to play ; something is 
wrong, something wanting ; body or mind is evidently in an 
unhealthy condition. The healthy child must play ; it is his 
way of expressing himself. What an orderly condition of se- 
curity and contentment was promised by the prophet of Israel 
to his captive people in these words: "And the streets of the 
city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the sti'eets 
thereof." 

"All voluntary activity which is prompted by natural inclina- 
tion and is productive of pleasure may be called play." All 
such activity has in it the element of creativeness and is the 
heaven-ordained means by which the child attains his develop- 
ment. How, otherwise than in the freedom and joy of play, 
would a child ever take the exercise requisite for his physical 
up-building, or be roused to the intellectual activity necessary 
to acquaint him with the material world ? By what other means 
would his imagination find exercise and all the deepest feelings 



26 PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. 

of his heart be expressed ? Above all, how would the social in- 
stinct find gratification if not by means of play? In organized 
plays, the form which play necessarily takes when two or more 
play together, may be seen the elements of the highest social 
life, and the germs of the religious sentiment. 

In their plays with one another, children ai'e expei'iencing, 
in its beginning, the blessedness of that uniting power whose 
full realization will mark the highest attainment of man upon 
earth ; for humanity is an organism whose vitalizing energy is 
the divine Life, and only when each is in union with all, will 
the full experience and the complete expression of that Life be 
possible. Schiller says : "Man plays only when he is a human 
being in the fullest sense of the word, and he has reached full 
humanity only when he plaj's." 

If in any community no festivals were observed, no general 
holidays in which all hearts were thrilled by a common senti- 
ment, deplorable indeed would be its condition. Public wor- 
ship may at times sink into lifeless formality, but the- higher 
and truer the religious life of a people, the greater their enthu- 
siasm in acts of united devotion. 

In the Olympic Games, whose production marked the highest 
stage of the development of the Greeks, and which were ex- 
pressive, not only of their intellectual and social attainment 
but also of their religious ideas, we have the grandest illustra- 
tion which history affords, of the fact that human life, at its 
best, finds its true expression in the joyousness, the spon- 
taneity, the freedom of some form of concerted action, some 
play or festival whose uniting power blends all hearts in one 
common enthusiasm. 

The degeneracy of the Olympic Games may be traced in the 
debasing spectacles of the Roman Amphitheatre, and in their 
last survival, the Spanish bull-fight of to-day. It is a deeply 
significant fact that the Greek was an actor in the Games, — 
the Roman was a spectator only. 

Who can doubt the unifying, harmonizing and elevating 
power of the great festivals held everywhere throughout oiu* 



PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. 27 

couutry during the present year, — more especially the greatest 
of all, the World's Columbian Exposition? 

The play instinct of the child needs to be nourished in an at- 
mosphere of love and sympathy, for play involves the idea of 
joy and consequently of freedom. Alas, that in their thought- 
lessness or in their ignorance of its true significance, older 
people so often interfere with children's play ! Alas, that in 
the home it is so little appreciated ! and that even in the Kin- 
dergarten, we so often repress and limit, so often dictate and 
prescribe ! Alas, for those Kindergartners who, through fear 
of not conforming to prevailing school-standards, are always 
subject to bondage ! 

How much the Kindergarten needs strong women, who com- 
prehend the truth that Froebel's system is based upon a new 
conception of education, both in regard to its aims and in re- 
gard to its spirit and methods, — women of clear vision and 
of practical ability, — courageous women, who shall lead and 
not follow, who shall not timidly borrow standards from the 
schools, but who shall give to the schools, in practical form, 
the true, that is, the natural, and, therefore, the divine stand- 
ard ; for the school has to do with the play-spirit as truly as the 
nursery and the Kindergarten. 

With the passing away of the unconscious stage of earliest 
childhood, a sense of power dawns upon the unfolding mind, 
and the comparative aimlessness of the plays of infancy gives 
place to an activity in which means are adapted to ends, in that 
conscious effort which in common language we call work, but 
which is in reality the play of this new stage of life. Play and 
work, —when work is done under the best conditions, — are only 
different names for the same activity, the play of childhood be- 
coming by insensible steps the work of later years. 

In the marked characters of the race, in men who have be- 
come pre-eminent in history, there is almost always seen a close 
connection between the plays of their childhood and their later 
creations. Such men have usually attained eminence, not be- 
cause of the schools, but in spite of them ; they have been, in 



28 rLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. 

otber words, self-educated through spontaneous mental action, 
the strength of their natural inclinations enabling them to resist 
the leveling and repressing influence of the prescribed routine 
of the classroom. Sir Isaac Newton confesses that he was ex- 
tremely inattentive to his studies and stood very low in the 
school. His biographer says of him: "It is very probable that 
Newton's idleness arose from the occupation of his mind with 
subjects in which he took a deeper interest," and relates how the 
"sober, silent, thinking lad" spent his play-hours in the use of 
all sorts of little tools, making for his school fellows, in whose 
games he never took part, but whom he was always anxious to 
please, all kinds of machines and amusing contrivances for 
their diversion. Lockhart says of Sir Walter Scott that he "at- 
tained greatness by obeying nothing but the strong bent of his 
native inclination s . ' ' 

At the head of a Museum of Natural History in one of our 
Eastern cities, tliere is to-day a man, who, as a boy, was re- 
garded as the dullard of his class. Always late at school in the 
morning, and idle and listless when there, regarded by his 
teachers with despair and by his companions with contempt, he 
lived in an atmosphere of unjust disapprobation which would 
have been fatal to all the highest and sweetest feelings of his 
nature, but for the intervention of a wise woman, a new teacher, 
who determined to find the reason for the boy's indifference to 
school duties. 

Observing him carefully, she soon found that he was always 
late at school because there was so much to see by the roadside 
and in the fields that he could not get there earlier ; and appre- 
ciating her opportunitj^ she always suspended school exercises 
when he arrived, giving him no word of censure, but asking, 
as a special favor, that he would tell the school what he had 
seen by the way. Thus encouraged, the dull boy brightened 
into the enthusiastic naturalist, and soon became the delight 
of his elders and a hero among his less gifted companions. To 
this happy turn in the boy's life may be traced the success of 
his mature years, and to the wisdom of that teacher the world 



PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. 29 

is indebted for a scientist whose original investigations in many 
directions have given him an honored name among the world's 
great discoverers, 
"x/ The most urgent need of the present time is not teachers 
equipped with the latest devices of methodology, but teachers 
of sweet and sympathetic nature, unselfish and true, genial 
and loving, teachers who truly "live with the children" in their 
world of thought and feeling, and who are joyous in the delight 
which comes from the consciousness of the grandeur of the 
work committed to them, and strong in their ability to perform 
it in the divinely-appointed way of play. 

Happy the teacher and thrice happy the children whose 
school-work is done in the play-spirit, — the spirit of love and 
sympathy, of joy and freedom. The race will not reach its 
highest development until each individual, whatever his natural 
endowment, has blossomed out in the genial influence of such 
an atmosphere. Education has been defined as "the unfetter- 
ing of the creative power." How can this unfettering be ac- 
complished otherwise than in the joy of some congenial occu- 
pation? As well may we expect a garden, on which the sun 
never shines, to disclose the divine thought contained in all its 
glorious possibilities of form, of color and of fragrance, as to 
expect the human being to show the divine standard of the 
man while leading a joyless life of limitation and repression. 
Man discouraged, oppressed, selfishly ambitious, deprived of a 
worthy motive, toils. Such a man is out of the divine order, 
and, therefore, cannot attain the legitimate enjoyment of life 
or fulfill his own highest possibilities. 

Let no one fear that the mind of the child will lack tone and 
effectiveness if relieved of disagreeable and wearisome labor. 
See what children will accomplish when the heart is enlisted ! 
No toiler in mine or quarry ever exerts more physical energy in 
his daily work than does the boy in the pursuit of his favorite 
amusements. Weariness, hunger, physical discomforts of every 
kind are lost sight of when his heart is stirred by a strong mo- 
tive, when his imagination has sway in a heaven-inspired ere- 



30 PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. 

ativeuess. How buoyantly, joyfully, "man goeth forth unto his 
work and to his labor until the evening," when his heart is ani- 
mated by hope, or quickened by the inspiration of a great idea ! 

The world's geniuses, her poets, her artists, her inventors, 
have ever wrought in that exultation of delight which is the 
joy of the child at his play, carried forward into the experience 
of manhood. 

It is not what a man does but the way he does it that marks 
it as play or work, as joyful service or slavish toil. The most 
wearisome labors may become play when done in a spirit of 
love, of trust, and with a sense of companionship with the 
divine One. The attainment of that high state in which all 
toilsome labors will cease, in which all work will be play, can 
only be realized when a deep religious spirit prevails, when the 
duties of life are accepted joyfully as the highest opportunity, 
when the relation of this life to the life beyond is fully realized, 
and when, in living trust, in the exercise of the highest affec- 
tions, each individual of the human race feels himself to be one 
of the loved children of the Great Father. Toward the realiza- 
tion of this ideal condition of society The New Education will 
have much to do. 



Y. 

The Connection Between the Primary School 
and the Kindergarten * 



The question we have been asked to consider is, "How can 
the organic union of the Kindergarten and the Primary School 
be formed?" This, as I understand it, is equivalent to the 
question, How can such relation be established between the 
Kindergarten and Primary School that both shall be parts of 
one system of education? 

If such union is ever to be established, Kindergarten and 
school must agree as to what constitutes education, and as to 
the end to be attained by means of it. When this agreement 
shall have been arrived at, the question before us will have 
been answered, for, having established general principles, de- 
tails of methods will take care of themselves. 

Froebel claimed for his scheme of education that it was a 
system^ and declax'ed that it was the application of a law, uni- 
versal in its operation, whether in the world of mind or of mat- 
ter, a law which he called the law of unity, or the law of rela- 
tion, that made his system a system. A study of this system 
discloses the fact that it provides for the whole child, in all his 
relations, and for every stage of his existence. Where else, 
among educational authorities, shall we look for a distinctly 
formulated system of education? 

Keturning to the two essential points of agreement just men- 
tioned, let us consider the educational standards of the Kinder- 
garten and those of the school. 

Education, according to Fra?bel, is the setting free of the 
inborn powers of the individual. It is a process of develop- 

*Read at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., April, 20, 1S93. 



32 THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 

meul, not a scheme of instruction. It discloses to each human 
being his own possibilities, making him free and joyous in his 
activity, from an inner necessity. 

Recognizing with reverence the wisdom of the Author of 
our being, Froebel declared that every human being is entitled 
to the full and free and right development of all his inborn 
capabilities. 

Man is a complex being, sustaining varied relations, and des- 
tined to an immortal existence. No one of these thoughts is 
overlooked in Froebel's scheme. It is in this comprehensive 
view of education that we have a grand application of his edu- 
cational law. In this inclusive scheme there is nothing arbi- 
trary or capricious, nothing fragmentary or fanciful. The hu- 
man being is regarded as the child of God, to be educated for 
union with Him. The well being of his body is regarded as an 
essential basis for the best development of mind and heart. 
The cultiA-ation of pure and beautiful affections is regarded as 
inexpressibly more important than the training and develop- 
ment of the intellect, and the hand is deemed of supreme im- 
portance as a means of giving form and expression to true 
thoughts and right feelings. 

The cultivation of the social nature of the child is considered 
to be of pre-eminent importance both with reference to the in- 
dividual's future happiness and usefulness in the activities of 
life, and as the only foundation for a truly religious character. 
Froebel is intensely practical, and never fails to provide definite 
means for carrying out his theories. The student of his system 
is impressed by the fact that he not only has given to the world 
the highest possible educational theories, but that he also has 
formulated definite prescriptions for putting these theories into 
practical use. 

Has the school the same standard and does it build broadly 
enough to cover the foundation laid in the Kindergarten? We 
all know that, as a rule, it does not, and the questions, there- 
fore, arise. Shall the foundations of the Kindergarten be nar- 
rowed or shall the structure reared in the primary school be 



THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN. 33 

broadened? One or the other must be done before an "organic 
union" between the Kindergarten and the school can be effected. 

It is easy to see that the whole tendency of educational 
thought at the present time is toward a more inclusive and 
broader idea than has heretofore prevailed, and it is certain 
that the educational demands of the new age, in which we are 
living, will not be satisfied with anything less than the broadest 
and fullest conception of educational standards. It is most 
encouraging to note that the entire scheme of primary school 
instruction is on a broader basis and is carried on under better 
methods than those which prevailed twenty-five years ago. In 
fact, the changes in standards and methods have been so great 
that they may well be considered as having constituted an edu- 
cational revolution. 

A comparison of the primary schools of the present time with 
those of a generation ago shows the intelligent investigator that 
the changes are for the better, and that they are all in the di- 
rection of the practical application of the principles of the Kin- 
dergarten. Evidently what is now needed is a still further ap- 
plication of these same principles. 

Let us look in detail at some of the requirements of school 
education which are agreed upon by the leaders of educational 
thought. 

There is a very general demand that the child shall be recog- 
nized as a religious being. This subject was so fully and ably 
presented by Dr. Lyman Abbott a few weeks since, in one of 
the lectures of this course, that we will not stop to consider it, 
except to say that the Kindergarten idea of religious instruc- 
tion is not that of creeds and dogmas imposed from without, 
but rather that of nourishing and cherishing the religious in- 
stincts of chiklren to the end that they may attain a true and 
healthy development. What the quality of the religious thought 
and feeling of the Kindergarten and the primai-y school shall 
be, depends entirely upon the Kindergartner and the teacher. 
No prescribed religious forms can of themselves have any value. 
It is most emphatically in this realm of education that the in- 



34 THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN. 

structor must live with the children, who never fail to respond 
sympathetically to the teacher whose sweet and loving, and rev- 
erent spirit illustrates to them the religious idea. Frcebel says : — 

"The first groundwork of religious life is love — love to God and 
man— in the bosom of the family. The unifying of all the circles of 
life, beginning with the family, springs from love; also the love of 
God, and the reverence for all that is highest, springs from love, 
which is the means of union in the whole universe, and brings out the 
highest consciousness of life in the final aim. Worship, in a child, is to 
feel and practice loVe; hence everything is legitimate which awakens 
or teaches love. What is suggested for this in the 'Mother and Cos- 
set Songs' mothers must carry farther by their own ap])lication of 
the principle. In the Kindergarten we use the same means as are 
employed in the established divine service, — pious songs, stories and 
prayer ; but these must correspond to the age of the children, and 
must be received into the hearts we have made practically susce])tible 
by the service to which we have accustomed them. The producing 
of this susceptibility is the great point for consideration." 

The physical well being of the child is every year receiving 
more and more attention in the schools. Better schoolrooms, 
with better ventilation and lighting, and more breathing space, 
are demanded, but the schools are still far from the Kindergar- 
garten standard of physical culture. Every primary school 
should be so arranged as to provide abundant space for games 
similar to Kindergarten games, for no better system of physical 
culture for young children has ever been devised than the 
marches and organized plays of the Kindergarten. The pri- 
mary school teacher of the future will utilize the play instinct 
of her children, as is now done in the Kindergarten, as a means 
of physical culture, and will find in games, adapted to their age 
and development, a means not only of physical training but 
also of social and intellectual education as well. 

All the work of the Kindergarten is, or should be, done in 
the play spirit ; but the child's love for play does not cease the 
day he enters the primary school, and since the Kindergarten 
never will depart from the play idea, the school must neces- 
sarily come to it. 



THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AN^D THE KINDERGARTEN. 35 

We already have some beautiful illusti-atious of the carrying 
out of this play spirit iu the primary school, and in so far as 
this has been done, the "organic union" between the Kinder- 
gai'ten and primary schools is already formed. What is prac- 
tically needed, both among Kindergartners and teachers, is a 
more thorough appreciation of the educational A^alue of play, 
and a more reverent and sympathetic study of childhood with 
reference to a thorough understanding of the best methods of 
fostering and utilizing the play instinct. 

Students of Social Science are forced unanimously to admit 
that orderly social relations cannot be universally established 
in society until every child is trained to a life of practical mo- 
rality in his every day relations with his fellows. These rela- 
tions should be, not of the negative kind produced by obedi- 
ence to the commands which begin, "Thou shalt not," but 
rather of the positive kind developed through an actual experi- 
ence of the joy which results from living helpfully and sympa- 
thetically with other children, some of whom are stronger and 
more capable, and others of whom are weaker and less efficient, 
than himself. The truth of Froebel's motto, "we learn by 
doing," is nowhere more emphatically illustrated than in this 
matter of the practical social life of the Kindergarten. The 
carrying forward of the same idea into the schools will necessi- 
tate many changes of administration. The number of children 
assigned to one teacher will need to be so reduced that she can 
know them all individually, and thereby be enabled wisely to 
adapt her instruction to each one according to his requirements. 
Such a reduction in numbers will enable each child to know all 
the others individually, and so to secure practical experience in 
a social life adapted to his stage of development, as a prelimi- 
nary to the larger social life into which he must enter, if he is 
to be sucessful in any department of activity, for only the 
hermit lives without social relations. 

The present arrangement of rows of school desks for primary 
school children should give way to tables and chairs similar to 
those of the Kindergarten, which are better adapted to the 



3C THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN. 

social idea. These furnishings make it possible for the children 
to sit in groups, and afford opportunity for the cultivation of 
sympathy, kiudness, and helpfulness, and the inculcation of 
ideas of justice, and are a means of the development of the 
spirit of joy, which children as well as older people always feel 
when living in the truest social relations, and without which 
there can be no healthy intellectual activity. 

It cannot be said that the attainment of the results here pro- 
posed is foreign to the purpose of public school education, for 
public schools were first established and are still maintained for 
the ostensible purpose of making good citizens. The failure of 
old methods of education to accomplish this end is admitted on 
all sides. Already, in the face of great obstacles, some at- 
tempts toward establishing conditions favorable to the promo- 
tion of the social idea, have been successfully made hj far- 
seeing teachei'S to whom all honor is due as pioneers in this 
great advance movement. 

What is needed on the part of those who direct the policy of 
the schools, is a realization of the transcendent importance of 
true social education as a means for the preservation of our po- 
litical, social, and religious institutions. The education of the 
future, of which the Kindergarten is a prophecy, will inevitably 
place the social idea at the centre, since education is only a pre- 
paration for life, and the "organic union" between the Kinder- 
garten and the school cannot be established until the schools 
are based on the social idea. 

In considering how to connect the Kindergarten with the 
school, the attention of educators has hitherto been directed 
chiefly to the use of industries in education, for it is universally 
admitted that the idea of manual training, as a means of educa- 
tion, was derived from Frciebel's system. In the present popu- 
lar movement for manual training there would be little danger 
that in this respect there would not be a vital connection be- 
tween the Kindergarten and the school, if school boai-ds, who 
are now demanding manual training, would provide adequate 
materials, and could see that in every case the teacher, who is 



THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN. 37 

to direct their use, understood the proper method of work, and 
the principle involved. 

The love of the beautiful is placed among the most important 
means of Kindergarten education. Beauty of form, color, tone, 
gesture, — all these are made use of as a means of developing 
the ideal character. 

Happy indeed are the school children whose teacher intelligent- 
ly and persistently employs these agencies to promote joy, peace 
and purity in the hearts and minds of her children. The fact that 
the schools are now giving to this idea more attention than ever 
before is evidence that they are tending in the right direction. 

Regarding the text books of the schools it must be said that since 
the Book of Nature is the text book of the Kindergarten, the or- 
ganic relation between the Kindergarten and the school which we 
are considering cannot be formed until the schools take up and car- 
ry forward the study of nature, in the same spirit of love and rev- 
erence with which that study has been begun in the Kmdergarten. 

It is the aim of the Kindergartner to develop the scientific 
mind, that is, so to rouse the love of nature at that stage of the 
child's life when he lives chiefly in his affections, that as he 
grows older he will desire to go on in the study of it. 

But it is not to make mere scientists that P'roebel prescribes a 
study of nature. He says, on page 202 of "The Education of 
Man," "From every point, from every object of nature and life 
there is a way to God. * * * The things of nature form a 
more beautiful ladder between heaven and earth than that seen 
by Jacob ; not a one-sided ladder leading in one direction, but 
an all-sided one leading in all directions. Not in dreams is it 
seen; it is permanent; it surrounds us on all sides. It is decked 
with flowers, and angels with children's eyes beckon us toward 
it; it is solid, resting on a floor of crystals; the inspired singer, 
David, praises and glorifies it." 

The Kindergarten Gifts are a primer of the Book of Nature, 
a means of leading the child out into the natural world as a first 
step toward an apprehension of truth, of which things are only 
symbols. 



38 THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN. 

The primary schools are iu many cases taking up the study 
of nature. This is a step in the right direction, and it is quite 
certain that it will never be retraced. The educational world is 
moving onward and upward, and the exalted standard which 
Froebel has raised will surely be reached, sooner or later. When 
it is reached there will be for the child one uninterrupted course 
of education from the nursery, through the university. 

Froebel's motto, "Come, Let Us Live with Our Children" is 
not for the mother and the Kindergartuer only. The spirit of 
love, sympathy and happiness involved in obedience to it, 
should be the prevailing spirit of the schools. It is only in an 
atmosphere of peace and joy, of hope and trust, that good af- 
fections develop, and only in such conditions can there be a 
free intellectual activity. 

This leads us to the consideration of that which is most es- 
sential, namely : the training of teachers for primary school 
work. 

As the Kindergartuer needs a thorough knowledge of educa- 
tional principles and a broad outlook upon the educational field 
so that her work may not be a merely mechanical routine of 
unrelated details, so the teacher, who is to build on the founda- 
tions of the Kindergarten must know what has been done there 
and must be prepared to work iu its spirit and according to its 
principles. When all our primary schools are under the admin- 
istration of teachers possessed of these requisite qualifications, 
working with the cordial co-operation of parents and school 
boards, then, may we hope to see the "Organic Union of the 
Kindergarten and the Primary School." 



yi. 

Froebel s Interpretation of Nature * 



In the papers to which we have just listened so much has 
been said in regard to the place which the study of nature has 
in the New Education, that it would not be advisable to take 
time for any further reference to the subject were it not known 
that there are those who are alarmed lest, after all, the New 
Education should prove to be materialistic in its tendency. At 
a recent meeting of the "Kindergartners' Union of New York 
and Vicinity," an earnest and thoughtful gentleman, prominent 
in educational circles, referring to the question in which we are 
all so vitally interested, namely : ''What should be the religious 
education of the Kindergarten ?" remarked that Froebel was pan- 
theistic in his teachings. Certainly this is a startling assertion 
regarding one to whom, more than to any other man, the edu- 
cational world is now looking for inspiration and for direction. 

"We all know that many needless discussions have arisen 
from the misunderstanding of terms. Practically a person says 
what he is understood to say, and whatever thought may have 
been in the mind of the gentleman just referred to when he 
spoke of Froebel as pantheistic, his hearers could only apply to 
the term the meaning usually assigned to it. 

Looking through Webster we find the following definitions : 
"Pantheism, the doctrine that the universe is God, or the sys- 
tem of theology in which it is maintained that the universe is 
the Supreme God." "Pantheist, one that believes the universe 
to be God." "Pantheistic, confounding God with the universe." 

That there are pantheists in the sense here given we all 

*Read at a Kindergarten demonstration made by students of the Kindergarten De- 
partment, Teachers' College, New York city, May 27, 1893. 



40 FROE BEL'S IXTERPRETATION OF NATURE. 

know ; there is however a doctrine of the divine immanence in 
nature, very generally accepted hj' devout minds of whatever 
creed, which sees not nature as God, but God in nature. 
Thompson in his sublime Hymns to the Seasons says : 

"•These, as they change, Ahnighty Father, these 

Are but the varied God, the rolling year 

Is full of thee." 
Dean Trench in his introduction to his work on the Parables 
says: "The world of nature is, throughout, a witness for the 
world of spirits, proceeding from the same hand, growing out 
of the same root, and being constituted for that very end." 

P^ntirely in harmony with this idea of nature are the teach- 
ings of Froebel. On page 158 of "The Education of Man,"* he 
says: "Man finds himself everywhere surrounded by pure 
works of God, by works of nature that clearly express the 
spirit of God." He speaks (page 150) of recognizing ''Na- 
ture in its true character as the writing and book of God, as 
the revelation of God." On page 202 he says: "From every 
point, from every object of nature there is a way to God." 

Again he says, page 154: "As in the human work of art 
there is no material part of the artist's spirit, and as neverthe- 
less the work of art as such carries within itself the whole spirit 
of its artist in such a way that this spirit lives in this work, is 
expressed by it and exhaled by it, is even breathed by it into 
others, where it may live, be developed, and cultivated, — as the 
spirit of man is thus related to the work produced by him, so 
is God, related to nature and to all created things. The spirit 
of God rests in nature, lives and reigns in nature, is expressed 
in nature, is communicated bj' nature, is developed and culti- 
vated in nature — yet nature is not the body of God. * * * As 
nature is not the body of God, so too, God himself does not 
dwell in nature as in a house ; but the spirit of God dwells 
in nature, sustaining, preserving, fostering, and developing 
nature." 

On page 227 of "The Reminiscences," Froebel speaks of the 
material world as a symbol of the spiritual world, and says : "It 

*Hiulniann's Translation. 



FROEBEL'S INTERPRETATION OF NATURE 41 

is in this sense that education needs to use it for the purpose 
of leading the child to the ultimate cause of all things, God. 
On page 172 of the "Mother-play," he speaks of leading the 
child to a "perception of the eternal life-fountain, of the only 
good, God," and says "the way lies through the thoughtful, 
spiritual and tender consideration of nature and of the life of 
mankind." On page 168 he puts into the mouth of the child 
these words : 

"Yes, sweet flowers! ye yourselves 
Aie khid and ever-watchful elves, 
That comfort me when I am weak 
And teach me higher things to seek ; 
Pointing me to the God above 
Who made botli you and me in love." 

In the play of the "Dove House," the little child, after tell- 
ing his mother what he has seen in his walk says : "Mother, 
I will go out again to-morrow ; then I will tell yon about it 
again, and then you can make me see and hear all that the dear 
God says about it." 

But Frcebel is not merely not pantheistic, he is distinctly 
Christian in his teachings as the following passages show : 

On page 30, of "The Reminiscences" he says, "We have to 
open the eyes of our children that they may learn to know the 
Creator in His creation. Only when they have found or divined 
God as the Creator through visible things, will they learn to 
understand the 'Word of God,' — God in spirit and in truth, 
— and be able to become Christians." 

On page 160, he says: "All education which is not founded 
on the Christian religion is one-sided, defective and fruitless." 

In "The Education of Man," page 152, he writes: "Only 
the Christian, only the human being with Christian spirit, life 
and aspiration, can possibly attain a true understanding and a 
living knowledge of nature ; only such an one can be a genuine 
naturalist." On page 151, Frcebel says: 

"Every human being, as a being proceeding from God, exist- 
ino- through God and living in God, should raise himself to the 



42 FBOEBEL'S INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. 

Christitiu religion — the religion of Jesus. Therefore the school 
should first of all teach the religion of Christ; therefore it 
should first of all and above all give instruction in the Christian 
religion ; everywhere and in all zones the school shovdd instruct 
for and in this religion." 

In conclusion, I would say that the writings of Fnebel 
abound in passages similar to those here quoted. 



YII. 

The Religious Nurture of Early Childhood.' 



"True religiou," says a distinguished writer, "-is the con- 
tinuous action of a whole life, a striving after God in all and 
everything." 

God is love, and we begin to find Him when we begin to be 
like Him, when we begin to exercise pure and holy and true 
affections toward Him and toward our fellow-beings. 

Every human being is endowed with the capacity of becom- 
iug religious ; what development this capacity will attain de- 
pends very largely upon the religious assistance the child re- 
ceives during his first few years. All life, whether on the ma- 
terial, the intellectual, or the spiritual plane, is at first feeble 
and requires tender and fostering care, and it would be as un- 
scientific to expect the child to attain unaided, a strong physi- 
cal development or a full and free intellectual life, as to expect 
him to become truly religious without careful religious nurture 
and training. 

Nurture is defined as "that which promotes growth" — growth 
involving the idea of orderly development by successive steps. 
The law of all true growth is "from within outward," and a con- 
sideration of what constitutes religious nurture leads us to see 
the importance of early infancy as the germ stage of the re- 
ligious life, and suggests means to be used in the promotion of 
that life. 

It is true that the infancy of each individual is shrouded in 
forgetfulness, but it is not on that account less important, for 
life is a continuous whole, and each human being is at any 

*Originally published in "The New Education." 



44 THE KELIGIOUS NURTURE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD. 

given moment the product of all bis past experiences. Infancy is 
the time when tendencies are given, which, as they strengthen, 
become habits, and later on, crystalize into character. What 
goes into a child's life so early that it is back of memory, back 
in the period of unconscious impressions, is a part of his being 
and cannot be separated from it. Long before the period when 
definite instruction can be given, the child is beginning to form 
tlie habits of mind which make instruction possible ; his soul is 
being made receptive or otherwise, through the tendencies of 
affection and thought given to it by what it takes in uncon- 
sciously from the moral and spiritual atmosphere which sur- 
rounds it. 

The truth that all life springs from a definite germ is more 
and more clearlj' demonstrated year by year in the researches 
of science, through the aid of the microscope, — a truth which 
the educator and the spiritual teacher cannot afford to overlook 
in their consideration of the development of the spiritual life. 
jNIuch time is often lost in dealing with chiklreu by the failure 
to recognize the relation between the fully developed trait of 
character as seen in the mature man, and the germ of that trait 
as disclosed in the tendency of the infant mind. 

A thoughtful observer has said: "The poetic spirit is the 
foundation of all scientific attainment;" with equal truth can it 
be said that the development of sweet and pure and true affec- 
tions toward other human beings is the foundation of the re- 
ligious life. Not that these affections constitute religion — but 
if the child is to love God, whom he has not seen, he must first 
learn to love his parents and companions, for it is fi-om this 
love, as from a seed, that the true religious life of love to God 
springs. Self-love and self-seeking are the blight and bane of 
the religious life — heaven would not be heaven if there were 
self-seekers in it. The highest religious attainment is made 
when self-seeking ceases, and the first step toward giving up 
the self-life is taken when the child comes into loving relations 
with other human beings. Such relations involve the exercise 
of sympathy, love, gratitude, reverence, hope, jo}' — emotions 



THE EELIGIOUS NORTITRE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD. 45 

which, if they become the habit of feeling, constitute that re- 
ligious susceptibility without which do religious developmeut 
cau be attaiued. Parents, and those who have the care of 
young children, would enter most reverently into loving rela- 
tionships with them, if they fully realized the truth that in call- 
ing out sweet affections toward themselves they were taking the 
most direct meaus of developing the religious capacity of the 
children. 

The importance of early habits may be seen if we consider 
that every grown-up person has a feeling of tenderness for 
the scenes and the memories of his childhood. Everything con- 
nected with that period is invested with a kind of sacredness ; 
and thoughts sweet and tender centre around the early home- 
life, even though that life were far from the ideal. It is during 
this period of tender receptiveness and sweet docility that the 
most important spiritual seed-sowing is effected. Religious 
impressions made at this time are never lost, and feelings are 
then awakened which will never die, though they may slumber 
for yeai's. It has been said that "the characteristics of parents 
nearly always determine the character of the child's religion." 
It is inevitable that it should be so — where else does he get 
his standards? If their attitude toward God is one of unvary- 
ing love and trust, it is apparent to the child, and he feels it 
in everything they do and say. They make for him the spiritual 
atmosphere of his first years. Happy for him if it is an at- 
mosphere of love, of peace, and purity ! Happy for him if he 
sees in his parents' daily lives a practically unselfish interest 
in the lives of others ! Thus will he be led to habits of kindly 
thought and in-acticaj sympathy toward his fellows. To en- 
courage children in loving deeds for others is one of the chief 
means of promoting their spiritual growth. They should be 
taught that to serve others is one chief reason why they are 
put into relations with them. A religious idea that does not 
find expression in useful activities is only a delusion. So long 
as it remains only a thought or a sentiment, it is practically 
nothing. The industries of the little child, like all his activities, 



46 THE RELIGIOUS NURTURE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD. 

must be adapted to his capacitjs but he should early form 
habits of doiug good and beautiful aud useful things. Such 
doing is not religion, but it is one of the stones in the founda- 
tion on which a religious character is built. 

It is delightful to see how children will always respond to a 
call for gratitude to God when the cause for it is set before 
them. But it is important that they should be led to see in the 
works of God, the proofs of His love aud wisdom. Some one 
has said : "The natural world is one vast mine of wisdom ; in 
seeing this wisdom there is philosophy, in loving it there is re- 
ligion." Children cannot unaided read even the first pages of 
the book of Nature ; there must be the wise, loving, reverent 
teacher to assist them. They feel themselves so weak and help- 
less that they are always ready to acknowledge a higher power, 
and when they see that their parents and elders have gratitude 
to the Giver of all good, their hearts join in the feeling. Many 
parents are perplexed to know how to guide wisely the prayers 
of very young children. It is safe to say that they should be 
chiefly expressions of thanksgiving. If rightly directed, the 
hearts of children will always go out sincerely, in words of 
gratitude. Like their elders, they are not always wise in ask- 
ing. The psalmist says: "All Thy works praise Thee, O God, 
and Thy saints shall bless Thee" — yes, even the little saints of 
the nursery, if they are only shown the works of God in a lov- 
ing way. 

That there is a relation between material things and the spirit- 
ual truth which they embody and symbolize is felt by all great 
minds, and some of the profoundest thinkers of the world have 
given expression to this idea. Milton says : 

"■lu contemplation of created things. 
By steps we may ascend to God." 
Of the Great Teacher it is said : "Without a parable spake He 
not unto them." 

Much remains to be said of direct religious instruction through 
the use of the Scriptures and through outward forms and observ- 
ances, but the limits of this paper forbid their consideration. 



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